Field-effect transistors (FETs) are used in many integrated circuit designs as switches to open and close the circuits. In general, a FET includes a source region and a drain region connected by a channel, and a gate that regulates electron flow through the channel between the source and drain regions. The channel can include an n-type or p-type semiconductor material, forming an n-channel FET (NFET) or a p-channel FET (PFET), respectively.
One particular type of FET, a finFET, is favored in some applications due to its fast switching times and high current densities. In its basic form, a finFET includes a source region, a drain region and one or more fin-shaped channels between the source and drain regions. A gate electrode over the fin(s) regulates electron flow between the source and the drain.
With continued scaling of electronics technologies, power, performance and density trade-offs become increasingly challenging to manage. Many strategies exist to manage power at the chip level, such as powering down non-active blocks or reducing supply voltage (Vdd) during a sleep mode. However, most of these approaches involve design overhead in terms of either managing the power-down and/or designing the circuits robustly so that they will maintain state at a lowered Vdd (where compact models typically have poor accuracy).
Often, the lower Vdd is determined empirically once the final design is made. As a result, conventional devices will almost always have higher design costs to ensure the circuit design functions at lower Vdd. This cost arises from both checking the design itself over a wider range of voltages, as well as ensuring the model itself is well calibrated across this range of Vdd's, which is often non-trivial. Plus, there is also the risk that if these tasks are not performed correctly, the costs associated with a re-design cycle might also be incurred.
Therefore, FET devices that provide power savings through low active power operations that can be easily and economically implemented with available processing technology would be desirable.